Reviews

The Invisible Man by H.G. Wells

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sidharthvardhan's review against another edition

3.0

"Conscience is the inner voice that warns us somebody may be looking."
- H. L. Mencken

In Plato's Republic, there is a discussion about 'Ring of Gyges' - the ring gives its owner the power to be invisible. The guy who brought up the question says that no intelligent person can resist the temptation of misusing such a power because morality is after all a creation of society. Socrates disagreed and gave a really long discussion gave a lame ideal-world kind of reply.

Wells' Invisible man sometimes smells of being inspired by the legend of ring but it is story of different sort - of first the blind obsession and second, madness arising out of when that blind obsession is frustration. The protagonist here didn't had the power, rather was struck with his invisibility.

I could have like this one more if it was a bit shorter. At times, Wells gets carried away with describing too much of disturbances the scientific invention or discovery caused to common people. One more thing I couldn't understand was why wouldn't invisible man create some invisible clothes for himself - and save himself from all the public nudity especially with most of story happening in winter or rains.

Like all Wells' great ideas, it has inspired many other works - including Mr. India, one of favourite movies from childhood. The movie is going to get a reboot with Johnny Depp as invisible man.

Anyway, coming back to argument of Ring of Gyges - I think the argument works only for the people with slippery sense of morality. It won't change an inch of a person of high and strong morals and dignity like me. There is no way it would make me do anything wicked .... I mean yeah, I may use it to steal for food for poor kids but that is a social service you see .... okay, I might steal a bit of food for myself too as a reward for all the hard-work I did .... books, okay, but Amazon is a multi-billionaire corporation and you can understand, we are all readers here - and as you can see I'm sticking to bare necessities here .... an apple mobile, a guy has needs you know... come to think of it, I don't mind Sony's play-station but it is a big company and I fed the poor children part time, remember ... Well okay, slap a couple of people standing in rows at back of their heads - just for laughs, you know - innocent humour.... maybe also ...

sohxpie's review against another edition

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dark funny fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I found The Invisible Man to be a rather entertaining read. It was a clever story, the horror and sci-fi elements were very well combined. I enjoyed how fast-paced the story was, everything was so sudden, it is a brilliant example of well-executed jump scares. I enjoyed the plot too, I liked how you got the information about how Griffin became the Invisible Man quite late in the story, it ensured that there was always a level of suspense in the story. This was my introduction to H.G. Wells novels and I'm hoping to enjoy the rest as much as I have enjoyed this one.

sukicorn's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

I liked this book and it was interesting. I feel like it’s giving a similar vibe as Frankenstein with the warnings of science exploration (which is something I don’t agree with but it’s interesting to read). I liked the way in which the book is told like the recounting by an overall author of the story like the author is recounting this event. The epilogue was also very interesting. I did feel sometimes though like the story was a little shallow, like we’re just watching this invisible man rampage and tell his story and there wasn’t much depth to it. Like this book didn’t really provoke any strong emotions from me. It was interesting to read though and while it’s not like one of my new favorites, I love science related things and I liked it overall.